CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Indians played the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday. Here is a capsule look from The Plain Dealer reporter Dennis Manoloff:

Game: 33.

Opponent: Twins.

Location: Progressive Field, Cleveland.

Time of day: Night.

Time elapsed: 2 hours, 28 minutes.

Result: Indians 4, Twins 2.

Records: Indians 14-19, Twins 15-16.

Four, score: The Tribe improved to 10-4 when scoring four or more runs.

Tomlin time: Indians right-hander Josh Tomlin, promoted from Class AAA Columbus to take the rotation spot of ineffective Carlos Carrasco, gave up one run on four hits in 6 2/3 innings. He walked one and struck out four. He threw 66 of 93 pitches for strikes.

Tomlin made his first start in the majors since July 27, 2012, at Minnesota. He earned his first victory since July 5, 2012, against Tampa Bay. (On Aug. 22, 2012, Tomlin underwent Tommy John surgery.)

Setting the tone: Indians starting pitchers Justin Masterson, Corey Kluber, Zach McAllister and Tomlin have combined for a dominant line in their team's past four games, all at home:

28 2/3 IP, 16 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 5 BB, 31 K. (2-0, 0.63 ERA.)

Kluber and McAllister settled for no-decisions in team losses.

Solving a problem: Granted, this Twins club is decidedly different than the ones Tomlin faced previously. Still, he can derive extra satisfaction from conquering it. He had been 1-3 with a 7.67 ERA (31 2/3 IP, 27 ER) in six games/five starts against Minnesota.

Two-man game: Tomlin relied heavily on catcher Yan Gomes.

"Of course you're going to study the scouting report,'' Tomlin said, ''but mostly I worked off Yan. He called a great game. I might have shaken him off once or twice, and when I did, it was intentional.''

Mixing it up: Tomlin compensates for lack of high-end velocity with location and speed variance. He is very much a crafty righty. Against the Twins, he used a fastball/cutter/curveball/changeup combination. He kept most of the fastballs and cutters on the outer thirds of the plate or just off the edges. At times, the cutter had enough movement so as to resemble a slider.

Tomlin's best curve struck out pesky Brian Dozier swinging in the sixth. The pitch featured the late break and depth of a splitter.

"The biggest adjustment for me post-surgery was with the curveball,'' Tomlin said. "I needed to get to a point where I threw it with conviction. I needed to rip it as opposed to guide it."

Natural instincts: Tomlin recognized as soon as he arrived at the ballpark that weather conditions would favor the pitcher. First-pitch temperature was 51 degrees, with a breeze blowing in from center field.

"I knew it would be hard to hit the ball a long way,'' Tomlin said, "which makes it that much more important to throw strikes. You've got to force the hitters to beat you in the cold, with the wind blowing in. You can't beat yourself. And the last thing the fielders want in this weather is for the pitcher to be walking guys.''

The run against Tomlin came in the seventh, Twins first baseman Chris Colabello belting a fastball into the left-field bleachers. It snapped Tomlin's professional baseball scoreless-innings streak at 26, including 20 at Columbus.

Back on the board: The Indians snapped a 14-inning scoreless streak with two runs in the first. The streak began Sunday and extended through a 10-inning, 1-0 loss Monday.

No response runs: The Twins pressured Tomlin in the second. With two outs, Kurt Suzuki and Eduardo Escobar singled sharply to left and center, respectively. Chris Herrmann stepped in.

Tomlin did what he is supposed to do to a No. 8 batter who entered 4-for-32 on the season: strike called, foul, strike called. The strikeout pitch was a comeback fastball that shaved the inside corner.

Adding on: The Indians stretched their lead to 4-0 in the second. As he did with the weather, Tomlin used the cushion to his advantage.

"It's always good to pitch with a lead,'' Tomlin said. "You've got to be smart about it -- you can't just throw fastballs down the middle -- but you can challenge guys with certain pitches in certain counts."

In a blink: Tomlin needed seven pitches to get through the third. No. 9 batter Danny Santana flied to right on a 1-1 pitch. Dozier and Sam Fuld grounded to first on 0-1 pitches. First baseman Nick Swisher's positioning even farther off the line than normal paid dividends against Dozier.

Finally a freebie: Suzuki walked to lead off the fifth, snapping Tomlin's professional baseball streak of innings without a walk at 22, including 18 at Class AAA. Tomlin barely missed off the inside corner with a full-count fastball. A scout in the pressbox said of plate umpire Brian O'Nora: "I thought he was going to crank (sic) him up. I thought he was going to crank him up.'' The K-box supported O'Nora.

The next batter, Escobar, hit a liner ticketed for the right-field corner -- until Swisher, who was holding Suzuki, snared it virtually in his tracks. Swisher stepped on first for the double play.

Sloppy defense continues: The Indians committed two errors, pushing their season's total to a Bad News Bears-esque 33.

As Scott Atchison struck out Santana in the eighth, the pitch eluded Gomes and rolled away. Gomes still had plenty of time to pick it up and record the out, but his throw to first was low and Swisher failed to secure it. Charge the error to Gomes, his eighth.

With two outs in the ninth, Tribe shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera booted a routine grounder.

Hard core: Atchison whiffed two in a hitless eighth, lowering his ERA to 2.13 in 11 appearances. The opposition is 6-for-43 against him.

Teammate Bryan Shaw, working the ninth because John Axford was unavailable, allowed an unearned run en route to his first save of the season. Shaw owns four career saves. Shaw's ERA is 1.65 in 17 appearances.

Swishalicious: Swisher played one of his better games of the season. He went 2-for-4, including a double in the first and RBI single in the second. He leads the Tribe with nine doubles.

Both of the outs came on hard-hit balls.

Swisher entered in a 2-for-25 slide.

Bat men: The Indians produced a mixed bag offensively. They scored the four runs on five hits in the first two innings against righty Samuel Deduno, then managed one hit -- an infield single by David Murphy in the third -- the rest of the way against Deduno and lefty Logan Darnell.

Finally: Another scout in the pressbox praised Tomlin for his tempo, saying: "I like guys who work quickly. There's no reason to take five minutes between pitches.''

Follow Us

cleveland.com is powered by Plain Dealer Publishing Co. and Northeast Ohio Media Group. All rights reserved (About Us).The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Northeast Ohio Media Group LLC.